When amazing descriptive words like: soft, buttery, and healthy are combined with the word cookie, then you know it’s gonna be a good day! This beauty right here is what peanut butter cookie deliciousness is all about.  These Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookies are easy to make and sure to become your new favorite!  Lightly sweet with a delicate peanut butter accent topped with a creamy chocolatey-peanut butter icing is all you’ll need for cookie nirvana. Perfect for any holiday, bake sale, or any day of the week. Guaranteed to get rave reviews, these cookies will be gone in a flash!

Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, no highly processed ingredients.

Hi there, Ameera here!

Have you ever made a cookie so incredibly delicious that you simply can’t stop talking about it?  Well, let me share with you that this cookie is exactly that.

If you love peanut butter cookies, then you will LOVE these delicious treats. If you are looking for a cookie to fool the omnivores and get rave reviews, then this recipe delivers!

Shortbread Cookie

The thing about this cookie is that it is not your traditional peanut butter cookies. It has kind of like a shortbread-like texture.

It is just so buttery delicious with just the right amount of crunch on the outside with a perfectly light texture on the inside. AND don’t even get me started on the icing!

The icing is totally optional, but, let me just say “OH MY GOODNESS!!!”  It’s just so gosh darned delicious!  Mom and I were flipping out and high-fiving each other all over the kitchen.

Let me also just say that this cookie is better than any non-vegan cookie I’ve ever eaten in my life or maybe my taste buds just prefer delicious healthy cookies these days!  LOL

Baking Bonanza

As I’ve already said a million times now, but it needs to be said once again, so hang in there with me. Mom and I love to bake!  In our prior lives, Mom and I were dedicated holiday cookie bakers. We created and baked countless dozens of Christmas cookies and sold them in large glass jars and tin containers with huge fancy Christmas ribbons.

We dedicated ourselves to Christmas cookie baking starting the 2^nd week of December though Christmas eve of every year for as long as I can remember holding a wooden spoon!

We made just about every kind of holiday cookie you can possibly conceive of.  We have been trying to convert as many as possible to Whole Food Plant Based. Some WFPB conversions work perfectly, while others have been quite challenging. We are determined to convert as many holiday cookies as we can.

We are so happy to share with you this beautiful creation!

This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.

Cookie Conversion

This Whole Food Plant Based conversion actually started last Christmas (2018), but we just weren’t thrilled with those peanut butter cookie kitchen tests.

Don’t get me wrong, those kitchen tests were tasty and perfectly yummy, but Mom and I consider ourselves cookie connoisseurs, so we wanted our peanut butter cookie recipe to knock your socks off, and I think we finally landed upon a recipe that will do exactly that.   We simply can’t wait for you to try them.

I’ll let Mom tell you more.

Hi!  Robin here!

Yup, Monkey and I have been working on this cookie for almost a year now. We finally got it down to where we feel very proud of this super yummy peanut butter shortbread cookie.  We are confident that you will love it too.  While the icing is not required, let me tell you, it is DIVINE!!!

TP109 said “I give my stamp of approval and 20 thumbs up!”  LOL We can’t wait for you to try them.

If you try these tasty cookies, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us!  We would love to hear from you.

Products Used:

• Baking sheet
• Parchment paper (or silicone baking mat) We used silicone baking mats
• Wire cooling rack (optional)

Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookies

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• Author: Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures
• Prep Time: 15 Minutes
• Cook Time: 10 Minutes
• Total Time: 25 Minutes (+5 Minute Rest)
• Yield: about 14-16 cookies 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: American

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Description

When amazing descriptive words like: soft, buttery, and healthy are combined with the word cookie, then you know it’s gonna be a good day! This beauty right here is what peanut butter cookie deliciousness is all about.  These Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookies are easy to make and sure to become your new favorite!  Lightly sweet with a delicate peanut butter accent topped with a creamy chocolatey-peanut butter icing is all you’ll need for cookie nirvana. Perfect for any holiday, bake sale, or any day of the week. Guaranteed to get rave reviews, these cookies will be gone in a flash!

Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, no highly processed ingredients.

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Ingredients

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Dry Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups almond flour *
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoons baking soda
• 2 Tablespoons cornstarch *
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt *

Wet Ingredients:

• ½ cup unsalted peanut butter *
• 1/3 cup organic maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Optional Topping Ingredients:

• Drizzle melted semi-sweet chocolate chips *
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Icing *
• Chopped peanuts

Optional Chocolate Peanut Butter Icing Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips *
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted peanut butter
• 2 Tablespoons organic maple syrup
• 1 Tablespoon unsweetened plain plant milk

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place oven rack in the center position, avoiding the lower oven rack placement.
2. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat (or parchment paper).
3. Place all the Dry Ingredients into a bowl, whisk to combine.
4. Add the Wet Ingredients to the dry ingredients, stir well to combine (no electric mixer required).
5. Take 2 tablespoons of cookie dough and roll it in your hands to form a ball, then place the ball onto the silicone mat (or parchment paper) lined cookie sheet. Try to keep the cookie size uniform.  Continue until you have rolled all the dough into balls and placed on the baking sheet.
6. Then flatten each ball into a round disk about ½ inch thick, then place the baking sheet (space them far apart as they spread) into a preheated 350 F oven and bake for 10 minutes.
7. After 10 minutes, remove from the oven, allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet(s) undisturbed for 5 minutes to firm up, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.
8. Enjoy warm, soooo delicious! Or allow to completely cool, then drizzle with melted chocolate or ice with Chocolate Peanut Butter Icing (icing instructions in notes) and sprinkle with chopped peanuts.

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Notes

*Chocolate Peanut Butter Icing Instructions:  Place the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and maple syrup into a small bowl.  Microwave (or melt in a small pan) in 10 second intervals, stir vigorously in between intervals to help melt the chocolate. Repeat in 5 to 10 second intervals – just until the chocolate is completely melted (do not overheat or the chocolate separates) and the mixture comes together, then mix in the plant milk, stir vigorously until everything is smooth.  Allow to slightly cool, then ice the cookies and sprinkle with chopped peanuts.  We used Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Mega Chocolate Chunks. 

*Traditional Crisscross Pattern:  We tried the traditional peanut butter cookie crisscross fork pattern and it works perfectly and tastes great. The crisscross fork pattern creates a slightly more dense cookie; we preferred to not do this and allow the cookie to rise naturally in the oven as we preferred the texture better. Both versions are amazing.

*Peanut Butter:  We use Fresh Thyme’s Creamy Peanut Butter (the grocery store chain). We absolutely love the flavor of their peanut butter.  The only ingredient is peanuts.  Do not use a peanut butter with added oils or sugars. For this recipe, do not pour off the natural oils that rise to the top of the jar.  Simply mix it back down into the peanut butter. This ensure that your peanut butter is free flowing (with a little help from a spoon) and not a hard brick lump of solid peanut butter.

*Peanut Butter Substitutions:  You can substitute the peanut butter with another nut butter or seed butter.  Keep in mind the note listed above about the peanut butter apply to the nut/seed butters.  The only exception would be tahini, which tends to be too runny and could be too bitter.  Keep in mind that different nut and seed butter will influence and change the flavor and consistency.  We have not tried any of these substitutes, but we believe that they should work well.

*Almond Flour:  This recipe was specifically designed for almond flour.  We do not have any substitutions.  Additionally, spoon the almond flour into the measuring cup.  Do not pack it in.

*Cornstarch:  This is a drier/shortbread style cookie.  If you want chewier cookies, reduce or eliminate the cornstarch.

*Sea Salt:  Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.

*Serving:  Makes approximately 14 to 16 cookies.

*Storage:   Use within 5 days. Freezes well (no icing).

This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.